In wireless packet-data networks with centralized control, a mechanism is required to enable a base station (or eNB in UMTS LTE terminology) to prioritize effectively the allocation of uplink transmission resources between different mobile terminals (user terminals, or UEs, in UMTS LTE). As disclosed on FIG. 1, a primary station 100 being, for example, a base station in UMTS or a Node B (eNB) in LTE communicates by means of a plurality of channels 120 with a plurality of secondary stations 101 being, for example, a mobile station in UMTS or User Equipment (UE) in LTE. Each channel 120 may be dedicated to carry different kind of data like control data or user data. Each secondary station 101 typically has data queued in buffers until it can transmit, when a resource is granted by the primary station; there may be buffers for a number of different streams, each with a different quality of service (QoS) requirement as shown on FIG. 2. As can be seen on the diagram of FIG. 2, three buffers or queues 21, 22 and 23 are shown. For each queue, a corresponding Quality of Service requirement is set, requiring a level of Quality of Service, for example to limit the delay of transmission or requiring regular transmissions at a minimal given interval. The eNB needs information to enable it to decide which UEs should be granted to transmit, and at what rate. To assist in this process, it is known for the UE to transmit requests for permission (so-called scheduling requests, or SRs), as well as the indication of the data in its buffers (namely buffer status reports, BSRs).
In the state-of-the-art, the threshold for triggering these events on the uplink is usually predetermined, or based on instantaneous channel and/or buffer occupancy conditions. Existing enhancements include methods which take into account the most recently granted data rate, or the average of the recently granted data rates. A UE can in fact store and analyse more details of its past transmission history, thereby extracting more accurate predictions of whether QoS targets are likely to be met.